Sound card problems

[CameFr0mBehind]

I am new to building computers, but I recently built one a few days ago with the help of a friend and this website. I built a tier 3 setup with a tier 4 graphics card.

Here is my setup:
Processor: Intel core i5 3550 3.3 GHZ quad core
Motherboard: Biostar TZ77B
Ram: 8gb corsair DDR3
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb
Storage: samsung 830 series 128gb ssd and Western Digital Caviar Blue 500gb Harddrive
Case: nzxt Phantom 410 mid tower
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80 Plus Bronze Modular
Cooling: Corsair A50 cpu cooler
Sound: Asus Xonar DG 5.1 Sound card w/ headphone amplifier.
Acer monitor model number g245hq

Now here is the problem. When i went to install the driver for the sound card, i kept getting the message "Please Plug-in Asus Xonar DG Audio device!" I re-seated the audio card into the same pci slot and when i tried to install the drivers, it worked.

However, the next day, when i turned on my computer, the sound didn't work, and the drivers were gone. I tried to reinstall the drivers again and the same message occurred: "please plug in audio device." it seems that i cannot install the drivers without first re-seating the card.

I plugged the hd audio into the motherboard and the front panel jack worked.

Next, I installed the sound card into my friend's computer. He was able to install the drivers with no issues. everything was working fine. It seems that as long as I don't shut down the computer, the drivers remain installed. restarts are ok, but after i shut down the computer for the night and turn it on again in the morning, the drivers are missing once again.

[mwhals]

Are you sure the card is fully seated? Open device manager and see if you you see your card under "Sound, video and game controllers."

You can open device manager by clicking the start button, then type devmgmt.msc into the search box and hit enter.

If you do not see your sound card, it isn't seated correctly or you have a bad PCI slot. If you see your sound card, it will show an error if the drivers are not installed.

If Windows does not see the card on startup, it will not load the drivers.

You might also try disabling the onboard sound in your BIOS to eliminate any potential conflicts.

[CameFr0mBehind]

Are you sure the card is fully seated? Open device manager and see if you you see your card under "Sound, video and game controllers."

You can open device manager by clicking the start button, then type devmgmt.msc into the search box and hit enter.

If you do not see your sound card, it isn't seated correctly or you have a bad PCI slot. If you see your sound card, it will show an error if the drivers are not installed.

If Windows does not see the card on startup, it will not load the drivers.

You might also try disabling the onboard sound in your BIOS to eliminate any potential conflicts.

Yes, I am quite positive that the sound card is fully seated. And currently, yes i do see my sound card under device manager.

The card is seated the same each time. what i mean is that when the sound card IS working, it is seated exactly the same as when it is not detected. It could be a bad pci slot, but the problem persists with my second pci slot. And it works sometimes. Currently it is working.

I have disabled all playback devices other than the sound card's, including the onboard sound. when i turn on my computer, the sound card drivers are not detected, and therefore there are no playback devices enabled at all.

you mention that if windows does not see the sound card on startup, it will not load the drivers. does this mean my motherboard is defective? It is a tricky issue because it works, and then after i shut it down for the night and turn my computer back on, it isn't detected. It's an on and off problem.

Thanks for your response

[mwhals]

Do you have another PCI device you can try to see if it has the same problems? Is your bios up to date as I have heard of bios updates fixing such problems.

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Also, are you using drivers from their website for the most up to date?

[CameFr0mBehind]

Do you have another PCI device you can try to see if it has the same problems? Is your bios up to date as I have heard of bios updates fixing such problems.

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Also, are you using drivers from their website for the most up to date?

I currently have it in a different pci slot and it has been working so far. I had avast antivirus and I uninstalled it to see if that could've been the problem. Since I changed the pci slot and uninstalled avast, I'm not sure what action caused it to start working. However, I will just go with it and not ask any questions lol.

Thanks for your help and suggestions

[mwhals]

Great! If it works in one PCI slot and not another, then I would guess there is an issue with the motherboard. Unless you plan on any more PCI devices, I wouldn't worry about it.